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    Biden Labor Secretary to Depart to Run N.H.L. Players Union

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    Martin J. Walsh, a former mayor of Boston, was regarded as an unusually visible labor secretary.Labor Secretary Martin J. Walsh is leaving the Biden administration to become executive director of the National Hockey League Players’ Association, the union announced on Thursday.Mr. Walsh, a former Boston mayor who had led the city’s powerful Building and Construction Trades Council, helped to bolster the Biden administration’s pro-union credentials and usher in a period of more aggressive workplace regulation after the relatively hands-off approach during the Trump administration.Mr. Walsh said in a statement that he would leave the Labor Department in mid-March.Alongside President Biden, who has been more vocal about supporting unions than any other president in decades, Mr. Walsh was arguably the administration’s most visible proponent of unions. He joined Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in meeting union organizers at the White House, and he served as vice chairman of an administration task force exploring how the federal government could increase union membership.Although union membership fell to 10.1 percent of the work force last year, the lowest rate on record, the country added nearly 300,000 union members amid a wave of worker organizing at major corporations including Starbucks, Amazon and Apple. (The rate fell because the work force grew even more rapidly.) Mr. Walsh cheered on the trend and warned employers to respect workers’ desire to unionize and refrain from coercive tactics.“As secretary of labor, I don’t appreciate that,” he said in an interview in August, when asked about complaints issued against Starbucks by the National Labor Relations Board. Workers who choose to organize “should be treated fairly and respectfully, not intimidated,” he added. Starbucks has denied violating labor law.Labor Organizing and Union DrivesTesla: A group of workers at a Tesla factory in Buffalo have begun a campaign to form the first union at the auto and energy company, which has fiercely resisted efforts to organize its employees.Apple: After a yearlong investigation, the National Labor Relations Board determined that the tech giant’s strictly enforced culture of secrecy interferes with employees’ right to organize.N.Y.C. Nurses’ Strike: Nurses at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and Mount Sinai in Manhattan ended a three-day strike after the hospitals agreed to add staffing and improve working conditions.Amazon: A federal labor official rejected the company’s attempt to overturn a union victory at a warehouse on Staten Island, removing a key obstacle to contract negotiations between the union and the company.In the Inflation Reduction Act, the major climate and health bill that Mr. Biden signed last year, Mr. Walsh helped push for labor-friendly provisions, including incentives for the owners of clean energy projects to pay wages similar to union rates.When it came to regulation, Mr. Walsh’s approach was most visible in the Labor Department’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an agency within the department, had declined to issue a new workplace rule governing Covid-19 under President Donald J. Trump.But Mr. Biden and Mr. Walsh pushed the agency to issue two so-called emergency standards — one outlining the steps employers in the health care industry would have to take to protect workers, and another requiring workers to either be vaccinated against the coronavirus or wear masks and be tested regularly. The Supreme Court blocked the latter rule, though it let stand a provision from another agency that required workers to be vaccinated at facilities that received funding from Medicare and Medicaid.After an executive order from Mr. Biden, the Labor Department also put forth a rule raising the minimum wage for federal contractors last year to $15 an hour. It proposed a rule that would make it more likely for millions of workers in industries like home care, construction and gig work to be classified as employees rather than independent contractors, guaranteeing them a minimum wage and overtime pay, and another that could raise the wages paid to construction workers on federally funded projects.It has recently cited six Amazon warehouses for creating work environments that have high risk for musculoskeletal injuries among workers. Amazon has said the accusations don’t reflect the steps it takes to ensure worker safety..css-1v2n82w{max-width:600px;width:calc(100% – 40px);margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:25px;height:auto;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;font-family:nyt-franklin;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1v2n82w{margin-left:20px;margin-right:20px;}}@media only screen and (min-width:1024px){.css-1v2n82w{width:600px;}}.css-161d8zr{width:40px;margin-bottom:18px;text-align:left;margin-left:0;color:var(–color-content-primary,#121212);border:1px solid var(–color-content-primary,#121212);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-161d8zr{width:30px;margin-bottom:15px;}}.css-tjtq43{line-height:25px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-tjtq43{line-height:24px;}}.css-x1k33h{font-family:nyt-cheltenham;font-size:19px;font-weight:700;line-height:25px;}.css-1hvpcve{font-size:17px;font-weight:300;line-height:25px;}.css-1hvpcve em{font-style:italic;}.css-1hvpcve strong{font-weight:bold;}.css-1hvpcve a{font-weight:500;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}.css-1c013uz{margin-top:18px;margin-bottom:22px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz{font-size:14px;margin-top:15px;margin-bottom:20px;}}.css-1c013uz a{color:var(–color-signal-editorial,#326891);-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-weight:500;font-size:16px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz a{font-size:13px;}}.css-1c013uz a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause.Learn more about our process.Ann Rosenthal, a longtime Labor Department lawyer who was at the department during the first year of the Biden administration, said Mr. Walsh was among the most effective of the 13 secretaries she served because of his credibility with unions and other worker advocates, his close relationship with Mr. Biden, and his political instincts and pragmatism. “He really checked all the boxes,” Ms. Rosenthal said.Mr. Walsh’s tenure at the department was not without controversy. Most prominent was the deal he helped broker in September between major freight rail carriers and a dozen unions representing more than 100,000 rail workers. The deal helped to avert a potentially crippling strike before the midterm elections and granted improvements in health benefits and wage increases of nearly 25 percent over five years.But the deal lacked paid sick days, and some workers complained that it did little to ease the grueling, unpredictable schedules that had put stress on their personal lives and health. Although members of four rail unions voted down the deal, the administration urged Congress to mandate the deal in November, and the president signed legislation enacting it. (Last week, one of the carriers, CSX, announced an agreement with unions that would provide four paid sick days a year for about 5,000 workers; a White House spokeswoman said Mr. Walsh had continued to push the rail carriers to offer paid sick leave.)Critics also complained that OSHA under Mr. Walsh didn’t go far enough in protecting workers from Covid-19. They said the agency should have devised regulations that applied to a variety of high-risk industries, such as meat processing, grocery and retail, not just health care. (The department said it had the power to ensure worker safety in these industries through other means, such as a so-called general duty clause.)Other rules, like the independent contractor rule and the one governing construction-worker wages, were proposed but not finalized during the first two years of the Biden administration — a delay that has worried some supporters.And Mr. Walsh and his administration colleagues failed in their efforts to win legislation that would have made it easier for workers to unionize, such as the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act, which would have blocked employers from requiring workers to attend anti-union meetings and made it possible to impose penalties on employers that violated labor law. The House passed the measure, but it stalled in the Senate.The Senate also killed a measure that would have granted consumers a $4,500 incentive to buy electric vehicles assembled at unionized plants in the country.A battery plant in Ohio that is a joint venture of General Motors and the South Korean manufacturer LG Energy Solution recently unionized. But without the kind of legislation that the Senate has balked at, unions face much longer odds in organizing at a proliferation of new battery and electric vehicle plants in the South.Mr. Walsh is a longtime fan of the Boston Bruins and has received political contributions from the hockey team’s owner. The Daily Faceoff, a hockey publication, previously reported on the contributions.The New York Times reported last month that Mr. Walsh was one of several candidates under consideration to replace Ron Klain as Mr. Biden’s chief of staff. That job eventually went to Jeffrey D. Zients. More

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    U.S. Could Default on Its Debt Between July and September, C.B.O. Says

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    The nonpartisan budget office also said that if tax receipts fall short of projections, and Congress fails to act on the debt limit, the U.S. could run out of cash before July.WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department’s ability to continue paying its bills and prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt could be exhausted sometime between July and September if Congress does not raise or suspend the cap on how much the nation can borrow, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday.The estimate suggests that lawmakers could have slightly more leeway than Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen estimated last month, when she told Congress that her department’s ability to keep financing America’s obligations could be exhausted in June.The United States borrows huge sums of money by selling Treasury securities to investors across the globe. That funding helps pay for military salaries, retiree benefits and interest payments to bondholders who own U.S. debt. The nation hit its statutory $31.4 trillion borrowing cap last month, forcing the Treasury Department to employ a series of accounting maneuvers to help ensure the government can continue paying its bills without breaching the debt limit.“If the debt limit is not raised or suspended before the extraordinary measures are exhausted, the government would be unable to pay its obligations,” the C.B.O. said in the report on Wednesday. “As a result, the government would have to delay making payments for some activities, default on its debt obligations or both.”However, the budget office noted that the timing of the so-called X-date is uncertain because it depends on how much tax revenue comes into the federal government over the coming months. The office said that if receipts fall short of its estimates, the Treasury could run out of funds before July.Ms. Yellen has been employing extraordinary measures since January to keep the government running. Those have included redeeming some existing investments and suspending new investments in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund.In a speech on Tuesday, Ms. Yellen warned that a default would be catastrophic.“In my assessment — and that of economists across the board — a default on our debt would produce an economic and financial catastrophe,” Ms. Yellen said at the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference. “Household payments on mortgages, auto loans and credit cards would rise, and American businesses would see credit markets deteriorate.”Calling on Congress to act, she added: “This economic catastrophe is preventable.”It remains unclear how quick or easy it will be to raise or suspend the debt cap. Republican lawmakers have insisted that President Biden agree to undefined spending cuts in order to win their vote to raise the cap. Mr. Biden has insisted he will not negotiate spending cuts as part of any debt limit legislation, arguing that the cap has to be raised to fund obligations that Congress — including Republicans — already approved.A separate C.B.O. report out on Wednesday showing the federal government will add $19 trillion in debt over the next decade and run $2 trillion annual deficits is likely to inflame those tensions.In a tweet on Wednesday, Speaker Kevin McCarthy once again called for pairing discussions about spending cuts to raising the borrowing cap. More

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    U.S. Blacklists 6 Chinese Entities Involved in Spy Balloon Programs

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    The action to cut off five Chinese companies and a research institute from American parts and technologies is part of the Biden administration’s response to the balloon it shot down last week.WASHINGTON — The Biden administration clamped down on Friday on sales of some U.S. technology to several Chinese aviation and technology companies, as part of its response to a Chinese spy balloon that traversed U.S. airspace last week.The Commerce Department added five Chinese companies and one research institute to its so-called entity list, which will prevent companies from selling them American parts and technologies without a special license. Officials said the six entities had supported Chinese military programs related to airships and balloons used for intelligence and reconnaissance.Alan Estevez, the under secretary of commerce for industry and security, said the action was a direct response to the Chinese government’s use of high-altitude balloons for surveillance.“Today’s action makes clear that entities that seek to harm U.S. national security and sovereignty will be cut off from accessing U.S. technologies,” he said.The restrictions mark the Biden administration’s first economic retaliation over the balloon, which the United States shot down last Saturday off the coast of South Carolina after it had floated across much of the country. The administration has mostly registered its anger through diplomatic channels, including the cancellation of a trip by the secretary of state to Beijing.Republicans have condemned the administration for not responding more forcefully, including by not shooting the balloon down before it moved out to sea. The White House said it was following the advice of the Pentagon, which feared the debris could hurt people on the ground.The Chinese government has tried to downplay the incident, arguing that the balloon was a civilian device for monitoring weather.The entities that the United States targeted Friday were Beijing Nanjiang Aerospace Technology Company, Dongguan Lingkong Remote Sensing Technology Company, Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group Company, Guangzhou Tian-Hai-Xiang Aviation Technology Company, Shanxi Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group Company and China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 48th Research Institute.The Commerce Department did not specify whether the companies and the institute had played a direct role in developing or operating the balloon that flew across the United States. But the Biden administration said earlier this week that it would consider taking action against any entities that had aided the balloon’s flight.The government has not yet publicized information about parties involved in the balloon’s manufacture or voyage. But it has said the machine was part of a global surveillance fleet directed by China’s military and was capable of collecting electronic communications.The United States has steadily ramped up its use of the entity list over the last few years, using it to cut off the flow of advanced technologies to rivals like China and Russia. In October, it added a crop of Chinese companies involved in advanced semiconductors to the list, arguing that such technologies were aiding the Chinese military.On Friday, the U.S. government shot down another unidentified object near Alaska. It was not immediately clear which country or company was responsible for it. More

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    President Biden Is Not Backing Off His Big-Government Agenda

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    In his first appearance before a Republican House, the president renewed calls for large new economic programs and offered no concessions on federal spending.WASHINGTON — There were no economic pivots in President Biden’s first State of the Union address to a Republican House. He did not pare back his push to raise taxes on high earners or to spend big on new government programs. He offered no olive branches to conservatives who have accused him of running the country into crisis with government borrowing.It was a shift from Mr. Biden’s two most recent Democratic predecessors in the White House, who tacked toward a more conciliatory and limited-government approach to economic policy after losing at least one chamber of Congress. But on Tuesday night, Mr. Biden barreled ahead. The president renewed his calls for trillions of dollars of new federal programs, including for child care and community college, over the sometimes raucous objections of Republicans who have centered their fight with Mr. Biden on the issue of spending and debt. He did not name a single federal spending program he was willing to cut. He said he would work to reduce budget deficits, but by raising taxes on high earners and corporations, a position anathema to Republicans.The speech was not a blueprint to pass any of those proposals, which have little chance of becoming law during his first term.Instead, it was a defiant opening bid for a high-stakes clash over raising the nation’s borrowing limit. It was a no-quarter recommitment to a campaign theme aimed squarely at blue-collar voters in 2024 swing states, centered on expanding government in pursuit of what Mr. Biden calls “middle-out” economic policy.Aides say the choice to defy Republicans’ calls for Mr. Biden to change course on economic policy was deliberate, reflecting both the president’s deeply held convictions on policy and his belief that he has found a winning political message.It was also a bet that the economy, which has so far been a drag on Mr. Biden’s popularity, will ultimately prove to be a tailwind in his widely expected re-election campaign. Rapid price gains are beginning to ease, and jobs are plentiful, with the unemployment rate at its lowest point since 1969.Biden’s State of the Union AddressChallenging the G.O.P.: In the first State of the Union address of a new era of divided government, President Biden delivered a plea to Republicans for unity but vowed not to back off his economic agenda.State of Uncertainty: Mr. Biden used his speech to portray the United States as a country in recovery. But what he did not emphasize was that America also faces a lot of uncertainty in 2023.Foreign Policy: Mr. Biden spends his days confronting Russia and China. So it was especially striking that in his address, he chose to spend relatively little time on America’s global role.A Tense Exchange: Before the speech, Senator Mitt Romney admonished Representative George Santos, a fellow Republican, telling him he “shouldn’t have been there.”To that end, Mr. Biden spent much of the speech proclaiming that the American economy is faring better on his watch than his critics — or even many of his voters — concede. He dived into details about laws he has signed to invest in water pipes, semiconductor factories, electric vehicles and more, while promising those plans would bring high-paying jobs to workers without college degrees. He promised consumer-friendly crackdowns on credit card fees, social media companies and more. On Wednesday, Mr. Biden was headed to Wisconsin to promote his economic legislation, while his cabinet secretaries fanned out across the country to do the same.“We’re building an economy where no one’s left behind,” Mr. Biden said in his speech. “Jobs are coming back, pride is coming back, because choices we made in the last several years. You know, this is, in my view, a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America and make a real difference in your lives at home.”“Here’s my message to all of you out there,” he added later. “I have your back.”Mr. Biden’s approach underscored how he has not regarded the Republican House takeover as a rebuke of his policies..css-1v2n82w{max-width:600px;width:calc(100% – 40px);margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:25px;height:auto;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;font-family:nyt-franklin;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1v2n82w{margin-left:20px;margin-right:20px;}}@media only screen and (min-width:1024px){.css-1v2n82w{width:600px;}}.css-161d8zr{width:40px;margin-bottom:18px;text-align:left;margin-left:0;color:var(–color-content-primary,#121212);border:1px solid var(–color-content-primary,#121212);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-161d8zr{width:30px;margin-bottom:15px;}}.css-tjtq43{line-height:25px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-tjtq43{line-height:24px;}}.css-x1k33h{font-family:nyt-cheltenham;font-size:19px;font-weight:700;line-height:25px;}.css-1hvpcve{font-size:17px;font-weight:300;line-height:25px;}.css-1hvpcve em{font-style:italic;}.css-1hvpcve strong{font-weight:bold;}.css-1hvpcve a{font-weight:500;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}.css-1c013uz{margin-top:18px;margin-bottom:22px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz{font-size:14px;margin-top:15px;margin-bottom:20px;}}.css-1c013uz a{color:var(–color-signal-editorial,#326891);-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-weight:500;font-size:16px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz a{font-size:13px;}}.css-1c013uz a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause.Learn more about our process.It defied the example set by Mr. Biden’s Democratic predecessors after they lost House control in their first midterms. President Bill Clinton promised a new era of smaller government in 1995. President Barack Obama vowed in 2011 “to take responsibility for our deficit” and proposed what he called “painful cuts” to domestic spending.Mr. Biden offered no apology for his policies. He cast himself as more fiscally responsible than his immediate predecessor, former President Donald J. Trump, in claiming credit for a $1.7 trillion decline in the federal budget deficit last year. That improvement was largely the product of expiring pandemic aid programs, but Mr. Biden suggested he would take steps to keep winnowing the shortfall between what the government spent and what it earned through taxes and other revenue. He said his next budget, which will be released on March 9, would further reduce deficits by $2 trillion over a decade.In a sharp contrast with Republicans, he called for raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy as a way to show a commitment to deficit reduction in spite of his spending plans. His proposals included an expanded tax on stock buybacks and what would effectively be a sort of wealth tax on billionaires.He baited Republicans on a pair of politically cherished programs, Social Security and Medicare, drawing sustained jeers when he said some of his opponents wanted to sunset the programs. While hundreds of Republican lawmakers have signed on to plans to reduce spending on the safety net by raising retirement ages and other reductions in future benefits, Mr. Biden’s “sunset” accusation rests on the possible effects of a plan to reauthorize spending programs every five years, advanced by Senator Rick Scott of Florida, which has gained little traction among party leaders.Republicans called the speech a departure from Mr. Biden’s previous calls for unity and a disconnect on major economic issues.“While the president is busy taking a premature and undeserved victory lap, lauding legislation that Democrats passed on a party-line basis, families in West Virginia and America are struggling at every turn because many of the policies and priorities of this administration have made the American dream harder to attain,” Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia, said in a release after the address.Mr. Biden’s allies cheered. The president “delivered a bold blueprint for an economy that, at long last, puts working people first,” Liz Shuler, the president of the powerful A.F.L.-C.I.O. labor organization, said in a news release on Tuesday evening.Mr. Biden fashions himself a congressional deal maker, and on Tuesday, he outlined a handful of smaller-scale initiatives on other issues, like curbing the flow of fentanyl and regulating big tech, that might plausibly win bipartisan support in the new Congress. But the speech was not a recipe for economic compromise.The president re-upped calls for big new federal investments in child care and assistance for the elderly, community college, prekindergarten and health insurance. But he offered no plausible road to finishing the job, as he put it, on that long list of proposals, which he was unable to include in the wide array of economic legislation he signed in his first two years because of opposition from centrist Democrats in the Senate.What he did outline was a defiant negotiating posture, as he and Republican lawmakers battle over raising the $31.4 trillion federal borrowing limit, which the United States hit last month. That cap, which limits the government’s ability to borrow funds to pay for spending that Congress has already authorized, must be suspended or lifted later this year in order for the United States to continue paying its bills and avoid a financial crisis.Republicans are refusing to raise the limit unless Mr. Biden agrees to deep spending cuts. Mr. Biden has said he will refuse to bargain over the borrowing cap and on Tuesday night reminded Republicans that they had agreed to effectively increase the debt limit three times when Mr. Trump was president. Despite what both sides called a productive meeting at the White House last week between the president and Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, Mr. Biden did not waver in that position on Tuesday.“We’re not going to be moved into being threatened to default on the debt,” Mr. Biden said.Mr. McCarthy, seated behind him, did not look pleased. More

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    As Biden Prepares to Tout Economy, Fed Chair Powell Takes a Cautious Tone

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    The White House has embraced signs that the economy is strong. For the Fed, that strength could prolong its fight against inflation.WASHINGTON — Jerome H. Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, underscored that the central bank has more work to do when it comes to slowing the economy and that officials remain determined to wrestle rapid inflation under control, even if that means pushing rates higher than expected.Mr. Powell, speaking on Tuesday in a question-and-answer session at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., called a recent slowdown in price increases “the very early stages of disinflation.” He added that the process of getting inflation back to normal was likely to be bumpy.“There has been an expectation that it will go away quickly and painlessly — and I don’t think that’s at all guaranteed; that’s not the base case,” Mr. Powell said. “The base case for me is that it will take some time, and we’ll have to do more rate increases, and then we’ll have to look around and see whether we’ve done enough.”The Fed chair’s comments came hours before President Biden delivered the annual State of the Union address, which offered a contrasting tone.Democrats are embracing a historically strong economy with super-low unemployment and rapid wage growth, cheering a report last week that showed employers added more than half a million jobs in January. But Fed officials have met the news with more caution. The central bank is supposed to foster both full employment and stable inflation, and policymakers have been concerned that the strength of today’s job market could make it harder for them to return wage and price increases to historically normal levels.Mr. Powell said that the Fed had not expected the jobs report to be so strong, and that the robustness reinforced why the process of lowering inflation “takes a significant period of time.”While he said it was good that the disinflation so far had not come at the expense of the labor market, he also underscored that further interest rate moves would be appropriate and that borrowing costs would need to remain high for some time. And he embraced how markets have adjusted in the wake of the strong hiring numbers: Investors had previously expected the Fed to stop adjusting policy very soon, but now see rate increases in both March and May.The biggest inflation challenge facing the Fed is in the services sector of the economy, which includes restaurants, travel and health care.Jim Wilson/The New York Times“We anticipate that ongoing rate increases will be appropriate,” Mr. Powell said. He said that in the wake of the jobs report, financial conditions were “more well aligned” with that view than they had been previously.To try to slow the economy and choke off inflation, policymakers raised interest rates from near zero early last year to more than 4.5 percent at their last meeting, the quickest pace of adjustment in decades. Higher borrowing costs weigh on demand by making it more expensive to fund big purchases or business expansions. That in turn tempers hiring and wage growth, with further cools the economy. Inflation F.A.Q.Card 1 of 5What is inflation? More

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    Job Growth Is a Boost for Biden as He Bets on a Lasting Turnaround

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    PHILADELPHIA — President Biden on Friday seized on what he called “strikingly good news” about the economy, hailing the addition of a half-million jobs and capping a week of presidential swagger about the direction of the country.Just days before he delivers his second assessment of the State of the Union in an address before Congress next week, Mr. Biden has all but dropped the “I feel your pain” message he frequently delivered last year as inflation soared.Instead, Mr. Biden traveled around the country this week, pointing to the real-world impact of legislation he championed to spend billions of dollars on the nation’s crumbling infrastructure and unabashedly taking credit for what he is betting will be a lasting turnaround as the Covid-19 pandemic wanes.In Philadelphia, Mr. Biden boasted about the new bridges that will be built and rusty lead pipes that will be replaced because of his efforts. And he praised the country’s businesses for creating 12 million jobs since he took office.“There’s now 12 million more Americans who can look at their kid and say: ‘It’s going to be OK,’” he told a group of workers at a water treatment plant. “And what it’s done mostly is to provide dignity for those families.”But looking on the bright side has its risks, especially since the red-hot job growth in January has the potential to trigger more aggressive interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve as it tries to keep a lid on high inflation. Prices have still risen at a rate of 6.5 percent, down from last year but well above the average for the last several decades.And economic uncertainty is far from gone as Republicans threaten not to raise the debt limit later this year, a move that economists say would shatter global financial confidence and plunge the nation into recession.The Biden PresidencyHere’s where the president stands as the third year of his term begins.State of the Union: President Biden will deliver his second State of the Union speech on Feb. 7, at a time when he faces an aggressive House controlled by Republicans and a special counsel investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information.Chief of Staff: Mr. Biden named Jeffrey D. Zients, his former coronavirus response coordinator, as his next chief of staff. Mr. Zients replaces Ron Klain, who has run the White House since the president took office.Economic Aide Steps Down: Brian Deese, who played a pivotal role in negotiating economic legislation Mr. Biden signed in his first two years in office, is leaving his position as the president’s top economic adviser.Eyeing 2024: Mr. Biden has been assailing House Republicans over their tax and spending plans, including potential changes to Social Security and Medicare, as he ramps up for what is likely to be a run for re-election.Previous presidents who have been too rosy about the economy have been punished by voters who see them as out-of-touch with their real-life issues. President George Bush lost his re-election bid in 1992 after seeming to dismiss the impact of an inflation-driven recession on middle-class workers.“This is the hardest thing to do in politics,” said James Carville, the Democratic strategist who helped Bill Clinton defeat Mr. Bush that year. “In a recovery, when can you say there’s a recovery and things are good? When people don’t think it’s good and you say it’s good, they get angry with you.”That same dynamic hurt Mr. Clinton politically in 1994, Mr. Carville recalled.“Although the economy was doing better, if we said it, the blowback was: ‘The guy is out of touch,’” he said. “That’s the most difficult and vexing problem that any incumbent has.”The White House has also been anxious over a worker shortage as Mr. Biden focuses on the implementation of his infrastructure, economic and climate legislation this year to galvanize voters. The labor market has remained tight; data released this week showed that the number of posted jobs per available unemployed worker rose again in December.But Mr. Biden and his team appear to have decided that it is not a time to hold back.The United States added 517,000 jobs in January alone, the Labor Department said on Friday, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.4 percent, the lowest rate of joblessness since before the first moon landing in the summer of 1969.The 12 million jobs added since Mr. Biden took office amount to “the strongest two years of job growth in history — by a long shot,” Mr. Biden crowed in remarks at the White House, adding that the new jobs report proves that a “chorus of critics” were just plain wrong about his approach to the economy..css-1v2n82w{max-width:600px;width:calc(100% – 40px);margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:25px;height:auto;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;font-family:nyt-franklin;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1v2n82w{margin-left:20px;margin-right:20px;}}@media only screen and (min-width:1024px){.css-1v2n82w{width:600px;}}.css-161d8zr{width:40px;margin-bottom:18px;text-align:left;margin-left:0;color:var(–color-content-primary,#121212);border:1px solid var(–color-content-primary,#121212);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-161d8zr{width:30px;margin-bottom:15px;}}.css-tjtq43{line-height:25px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-tjtq43{line-height:24px;}}.css-x1k33h{font-family:nyt-cheltenham;font-size:19px;font-weight:700;line-height:25px;}.css-1hvpcve{font-size:17px;font-weight:300;line-height:25px;}.css-1hvpcve em{font-style:italic;}.css-1hvpcve strong{font-weight:bold;}.css-1hvpcve a{font-weight:500;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}.css-1c013uz{margin-top:18px;margin-bottom:22px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz{font-size:14px;margin-top:15px;margin-bottom:20px;}}.css-1c013uz a{color:var(–color-signal-editorial,#326891);-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-weight:500;font-size:16px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz a{font-size:13px;}}.css-1c013uz a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause.Learn more about our process.Those critics often note that the dramatic job growth during Mr. Biden’s term is the result of needed rebuilding after the loss of about 10 million jobs in the country because of pandemic-related shutdowns.Just moments after Friday’s jobs report came out, members of Mr. Biden’s team took to social media. Shalanda Young, the president’s budget director, noted the unemployment rate, saying “@POTUS’s economic plan is delivering.” Ian Sams, the spokesman for the White House Counsel’s Office, criticized Republicans for “political stunt” investigations.“House Rs could instead join @POTUS to focus on issues affecting people’s lives like jobs & work together on this historic progress,” he wrote alongside a chart showing the decline in the unemployment rate since Mr. Biden took office.The president and his team are unlikely to get that kind of cooperation from his adversaries, especially after an announcement on his likely re-election bid, a move expected in the coming weeks or months.Despite his administration’s accomplishments, Mr. Biden remains in a politically perilous situation with voters after two years in office. A recent public opinion survey by NBC News indicated that a plurality of voters do not think he is “honest and trustworthy,” has the “ability to handle a crisis,” is “competent and effective,” or is “uniting the country.”In the survey, 54 percent said Mr. Biden does not have the “necessary mental and physical health to be president.” Only 28 percent said he does.Still, the president’s aides are betting that voters will be more focused on how they experience the economy: Do they have jobs? Can they afford to buy groceries and gas? Do they have the resources to take a vacation or buy a car?A year ago, with gas prices soaring, Mr. Biden went out of his way to make sure Americans knew he felt their financial frustration with the situation, saying “I get it,” and adding: “I know how much it hurts.”On Friday, that sentiment was largely replaced by an unrestrained enthusiasm in the wake of one of the biggest employment increases in months.Mr. Biden has for months pointed to job growth as evidence that his agenda has rebuilt the economy after the coronavirus pandemic shuttered much of the United States. On Friday, he amplified that narrative to draw a contrast between what he says are policies that produced steady growth and the tax and spending plans of some House Republicans.Throughout his time in office, rising consumer prices have been one of the more glaring political vulnerabilities for Mr. Biden. The Fed on Wednesday raised interest rates for an eighth consecutive time in a year in an effort to cool rapid inflation.Republicans have accused the White House of worsening inflation by injecting too much money into the economy and have called for major spending cuts.Asked after his remarks whether he takes responsibility for inflation that remains high, Mr. Biden said he does not.“Because it was already there,” he said. “When I got here, man. Remember what the economy was like? Jobs were hemorrhaging. Inflation was rising? We weren’t manufacturing a damn thing here. We were in real economic difficulty.”“That’s why I don’t,” he said. More

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    Biden Weighs State of the Union Focus on His Unfinished Agenda

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    As the president prepares for his national address, his aides debate an emphasis on his still-unrealized plans for child care, prekindergarten and more.WASHINGTON — President Biden’s top economic aides have battled for weeks over a key decision for his State of the Union address on Tuesday: how much to talk about child care, prekindergarten, paid leave and other new spending proposals that the president failed to secure in the flurry of economic legislation he signed in his first two years in office.Some advisers have pushed for Mr. Biden to spend relatively little time on those efforts, even though he is set to again propose them in detail in the budget blueprint he will release in March. They want the president to continue championing the spending he did sign into law, like investments in infrastructure like roads and water pipes, and advanced manufacturing industries like semiconductors, while positioning him as a bipartisan bridge-builder on critical issues for the middle class.Other aides want Mr. Biden to spend significant time in the speech on an issue set that could form the core of his likely re-election pitch to key swing voters, particularly women. Polls by liberal groups suggest such a focus, on helping working families afford care for their children and aging parents, could prove a winning campaign message.The debate is one of many taking place inside the administration as Mr. Biden tries to determine which issues to focus on in a speech that carries extra importance this year. It will be Mr. Biden’s first address to the new Republican majority in the House, which has effectively slammed the brakes on his legislative agenda for the next two years. And it could be a preview for the themes Mr. Biden would stress on the 2024 campaign trail should he run for a second term.Administration officials caution that Mr. Biden has not finalized his strategy. A White House official said Friday that the president was preparing to tout his economic record and his full vision for the economy.The Biden PresidencyHere’s where the president stands as the third year of his term begins.State of the Union: President Biden will deliver his second State of the Union speech on Feb. 7, at a time when he faces an aggressive House controlled by Republicans and a special counsel investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information.Chief of Staff: Mr. Biden named Jeffrey D. Zients, his former coronavirus response coordinator, as his next chief of staff. Mr. Zients replaces Ron Klain, who has run the White House since the president took office.Economic Aide Steps Down: Brian Deese, who played a pivotal role in negotiating economic legislation Mr. Biden signed in his first two years in office, is leaving his position as the president’s top economic adviser.Eyeing 2024: Mr. Biden has been assailing House Republicans over their tax and spending plans, including potential changes to Social Security and Medicare, as he ramps up for what is likely to be a run for re-election.Few of Mr. Biden’s advisers expect Congress to act in the next two years on paid leave, an enhanced tax credit for parents, expanded support for caregivers for disabled and older Americans or expanded access to affordable child care. All were centerpieces of the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan Mr. Biden announced in the first months of his administration. Mr. Biden proposes to offset those and other proposals with tax increases on high earners and corporations.Earlier this week, Mr. Biden hinted that he may be preparing to pour more attention on those so-called “care economy” proposals, which he and his economic team say would help alleviate problems that crimp family budgets and block would-be workers from looking for jobs.At a White House event celebrating the 30th anniversary of a law that mandated certain workers be allowed to take unpaid medical leave, Mr. Biden ticked through his administration’s efforts to invest in a variety of care programs in the last two years, while acknowledging failure to pass federally mandated paid leave and other larger programs.Mr. Biden said he remained committed to “passing a national program of paid leave and medical leave.”“And, by the way, American workers deserve paid sick days as well,” he said. “Paid sick days. Look, I’ve called on Congress to act, and I’ll continue fighting.”.css-1v2n82w{max-width:600px;width:calc(100% – 40px);margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:25px;height:auto;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;font-family:nyt-franklin;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1v2n82w{margin-left:20px;margin-right:20px;}}@media only screen and (min-width:1024px){.css-1v2n82w{width:600px;}}.css-161d8zr{width:40px;margin-bottom:18px;text-align:left;margin-left:0;color:var(–color-content-primary,#121212);border:1px solid var(–color-content-primary,#121212);}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-161d8zr{width:30px;margin-bottom:15px;}}.css-tjtq43{line-height:25px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-tjtq43{line-height:24px;}}.css-x1k33h{font-family:nyt-cheltenham;font-size:19px;font-weight:700;line-height:25px;}.css-1hvpcve{font-size:17px;font-weight:300;line-height:25px;}.css-1hvpcve em{font-style:italic;}.css-1hvpcve strong{font-weight:bold;}.css-1hvpcve a{font-weight:500;color:var(–color-content-secondary,#363636);}.css-1c013uz{margin-top:18px;margin-bottom:22px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz{font-size:14px;margin-top:15px;margin-bottom:20px;}}.css-1c013uz a{color:var(–color-signal-editorial,#326891);-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;font-weight:500;font-size:16px;}@media only screen and (max-width:480px){.css-1c013uz a{font-size:13px;}}.css-1c013uz a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause.Learn more about our process.For Mr. Biden, continuing to call for new spending initiatives aimed at lower- and middle-income workers would draw a clear contrast with the still-nascent field of Republicans seeking the White House in 2024. It would cheer some outside advocacy groups that have pushed him to renew his focus on programs that would particularly aid women and children.The State of the Union speech “presents the president with a rare opportunity to take a victory lap and, simultaneously, advance his agenda,” the advocacy group First Focus on Children said in a news release this week. “All to the benefit of children.”The efforts could also address what Mr. Biden’s advisers have identified as a lingering source of weakness in the recovery from the pandemic recession: high costs of caregiving, which are blocking Americans from looking for work. The nonprofit group ReadyNation estimates in a new report that child care challenges cost American families $78 billion a year and employers another $23 billion.“Among prime-age people not working in the United States, roughly half of them list care responsibilities as the main reason for not participating in the labor force,” Heather Boushey, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters this week. She noted that the jobs rebound has lagged in care industries like nursing homes and day care centers.“These remain economic challenges and addressing them could go a long ways towards supporting our nation’s labor supply,” she said.But focusing on that unfinished economic work could conflict with Mr. Biden’s repeated efforts this year to portray the economy as strong and position him as a president who reached across the aisle to secure big new investments that are lifting growth and job creation. On Friday, the president celebrated news that the economy created 517,000 jobs in January, in a brief speech that did not mention the challenges facing caregivers.Calling for vast new spending programs also risks further antagonizing House conservatives, who have made government spending their first large fight with the president. Republicans have threatened to allow the United States to fall into an economically catastrophic default on government debt by not raising the federal borrowing limit, unless Mr. Biden agrees to sharp cuts in existing spending.“Revenue into the government has never been higher,” Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, told reporters on Thursday, a day after he met with Mr. Biden at the White House to discuss fiscal issues and the debt limit. “It’s the highest revenue we’ve ever seen in. So it’s not a revenue problem. It’s a spending problem.”Catie Edmondson More